Astro-images, Interacting and colliding galaxies from the Arp catalogue

All photos by Jeffrey W. Mirick

Specs for images taken with a camera and lens:
Camera: Panasonic lumix DC-S5 Full Frame Camera - 26MB
Lens: 70-200 mm, F2.8 lens
Temperature: Room temperature
Star Tracking: The camera was mounted on the
Sky-Watcher Star Adventure to track the stars across the sky.
Mount: The Sky Watcher (and camera) was mounted on a camera mount capable of holding the weight of the Star tracker, camera, and lens.
Stacked images: 80 to 120 images were stacked to reduce the noise using PixInsight.

Specs for taking images using a telescope:
Telescope: Orion 190 mm (7.5 inches) F5.6 Maksutov-Newtonian (Mak-Newt) Astrogrraph Telescope
Mount: Orion Atlas II, EQ-G Computerized Goto Mount
Camera: Orion cooled CMOS 26 MB G26 camera Temperature: Camera was cooled to 0 C
Filter: SkyGlow Broadband Filter - Light pollution filter

Object	Arp 55, Grasshopper Galaxy, UGC 4881
Date	March 16, 2023
Constellation	Lynx
Distance	527 Million Light Years
Magnitude	15.6
Comments	Galaxy merger
Exposure	28 subs at 5 minutes - total exposure: 2 hours 20 minutes<.td>

Object	Arp 65, NGC 90 and NGC 93, upper left of center in image
Date	December 20, 2024
Constellation	Andromeda
Distance	335 Million Light Years
Magnitude	13 to 14
Exposure	72 subs at 2 minutes - total exposure: 2 hours 24 minutes

Object	Arp 85, M51a, NGC 5194 and NGC 5195, Whirlpool galaxy
Date	May 11, 2024
Constellation	Canes Venatici
Distance	25 Million Light Years
Magnitude	8.4
Comments	This photo was taken with a Lumix S5 full frame camera with a 600 mm focal length lens at f6.3 and a tracking mount and tripod. NGC 5198 is also visible in the upper right corner at magnitude 13.2
Exposure	51 subs at 20 seconds, total exposure: 17 minutes

Object	Arp 94, NGC 3226 and NGC 3227
Date	March 27, 2022
Constellation	Leo
Distance	50 to 60 Million Light Years
Magnitude	10.3
Comments
Exposure	20 subs at 3 minutes, total exposure: 1 hour

Object	Arp 116, M60 and NGC 4647
Date	May 4, 2022
Constellation	Virgo
Distance	63 Million Light Years
Magnitude	9.8 and 11.9
Comments	Supernova, M60-UCD1 (ultracompact dwarf galaxy), other neighboring galaixes
Exposure	18 subs at 3 minutes, total exposure: 54 minutes

Object	Arp 120, Eyes Galaxies, NGC 4435 and NGC 4438
Date	March 2025
Constellation	Virgo
Distance	50-60 Million Light Years
Magnitude	10
Comments	Part of the Markarian's chain of galaxies, M84 and M86 visible at magnitude 9
Exposure	88 subs at 2 minutes, total exposure: 2 hours 56 minutes

Object	Arp 142, Penguin (or Porpoise) Galaxy, NGC 2936
Date taken	March 2025
Constellation	Hydra
Distance	352 Million Light Years
Magnitude	12.8
Exposure	96 subs at 2 minutes, total exposure: 3 hours 12 minutes

Object	Arp 143, NGC 2444 and NGC 2445, The Triangle
Date	April 2024
Constellation	Lynx
Distance	135 Million Light Years
Magnitude	12.9
Comments	Gain: 1000, Head on collision between 2 galaxies
Exposure	109 subs at 2 minutes, total exposure: 3 hours 38 minutes

Object	Arp 147, IC 298, Pair of ring galaxies
Date	December 2024
Constellation	Cetus
Distance	440 Million Light Years
Magnitude	14.3
Comments	Interacting ring galaxies
Exposure	121 subs at 2 minutes, total exposure: 4 hours 2 minutes

Object	Arp 148, Mayall's Object
Date	February 2025
Constellation	Ursa Major
Distance	450 Million Light Years
Magnitude	about 15
Comments	two colliding galaxies
Exposure	77 subs at 2 minutes, total exposure: 2 hours 34 minutes

Object	Arp 195, UGC 4653, A trio of interacting galaxies
Date	February 2025
Constellation	Ursa Major
Distance	763 Million Light Years
Magnitude	13.6
Comments	trio of colliding galaxies
Exposure	87 subs at 2 minutes, total exposure: 2 hours 54 minutes

Object	Arp 271, NGC 5426 and NGC 5427
Date	July 4, 2022
Constellation	Virgo
Distance	127 Million Light Years
Magnitude	11.4
Comments
Exposure	17 subs at 5 minutes, total exposure: 1 hour 25 minutes

Object	Arp 273, The Rose, UGC 1810 and 1813
Date	November 24, 2024 and December 2, 2024
Constellation	Andromeda
Distance	300 Million Light Years
Magnitude	13.7
Comments	NGC 7320 (‘blue’ galaxy) is not part of the group and is a local galaxy about 39 MLY distance
Exposure	120 subs at 2 minutes, total exposure: 4 hours

Object	Arp 319, The Stephan's Quintet
Date	November 21 and 22, 2024
Constellation	Pegasus
Distance	210 to 340 Million Light Years
Magnitude	about 13 to 17 for the faintest
Comments
Exposure	112 subs at 2 minutes, total exposure: 3 hours 44 minutes

Twin Quasars

Distance: 8.8 Billion Light Years Magnitude: 16.7 Constellation: Ursa Major Gravitational lensing is creating 2 images of the same quasar.
The large galaxy responsible for the lensing is at a distance of 3.7 billion light years
and is not visible in the image.
In 1979 this quasar became the first confirmed example of gravitational lensing.
Exposure: Gain: 500 Number of subs: 42 @ 2 minutes Total time: 1 hour, 24 minutes